It saddens me to see my friend, someone whom I respect and who is a mentor to all of us, being bullied because my friend dared to ask, “What is happening here?”
Bullying of specialists is not something easy to comprehend; it is paralysing and the worst. To be a specialist, one spends seven years in public service.
One is bonded for 10+4 years. During training, service is put on hold. When one finishes training on time, one has seven more years in government bond.
Later, if you are passionate about the service, the person embarks on subspecialty training for an additional two or three years, depending on the subject. One is again bonded for another four years and nearly RM600,000.
But it doesn’t end there, because during the training, if you need to go overseas, you will have to take up a personal loan because the Hadiah Latihan Persekutuan scholarship is never enough.
Then one comes back to work, all energised to return the investment that Malaysian citizens have paid up front. But here is the problem: you don’t know who is your Head of Specialty (HOS) or Head of Department (HOD).
If they are well respected by peers due to their work in the subject matter, then you are in good hands. But if they were born earlier and are armchair experts on a positional leadership role that they have held for years, then you will always be perceived as a threat.
When dealing with professionals, respect must be earned; it is not given freely. Again, we are students of science, so we must always ask questions because that is how the service progress. Many scientific breakthroughs have occurred with a questioning mind.
The HOD/ HOS plays a major role – they can open doors and facilitate growth. But if they feel inferior, then they can bully you into submission and make you go against all your scientific training. If they cannot get you to submit to nonsensical policies, then they will make an example out of you.
That is what is perceived to be going on in the Emergency fraternity right now. A cry of bullying has been declared not by the victims, but by their friends. Transfer letters have been received under the guise of “for the sake of service.”
Why do specialists shy away from declaring themselves as victims of bullying? The shame and guilt is too high. You want to get help, but you can’t openly speak to your psychiatric colleagues. You don’t know how to get assistance from the National Centre of Excellence for Mental Health (NCEMH).
If you resign, all this will follow you. If you have a pension, it’s gone. Your fraternity will gossip about you and your job prospects disappear. Who wants to hire a depressed specialist, who was transferred by their own head due to perception as a troublemaker?
Friends of the Emergency fraternity have tried to highlight the plight of their colleagues by using an online petition to gain attention of higher ups. The petition has since been closed.
Unfortunately, it was declared fake by their own College of Emergency Physicians in the Academy of Medicine, Malaysia. So, what is left? Who is there to hear our cries?
Hopefully, this letter will lend some insight to the task force that is investigating workplace bullying in the Ministry of Health.
Bullying is bad for junior medical officers, but it’s even worse for specialists.
The author is a physician at a government hospital. CodeBlue is providing the author anonymity as civil servants are prohibited from writing to the press.
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
